Dark side of artificial tans

Updated 11:59 pm, Sunday, August 25, 2013

While many salons say tanning beds can prevent sunburns by preparing skin for the summer sun, doctors say tanning beds can cause melanoma.

While many salons say tanning beds can prevent sunburns by preparing skin for the summer sun, doctors say tanning beds can cause melanoma.

Photo: Getty Images

Image 2 of 2

While many salons say tanning beds can prevent sunburns by preparing skin for the summer sun, doctors say tanning beds can cause melanoma.

While many salons say tanning beds can prevent sunburns by preparing skin for the summer sun, doctors say tanning beds can cause melanoma.

Photo: Giuseppe Barranco /

Dark side of artificial tans

1 / 2

Back to Gallery

Morgan Gerlich likes the way she looks with a tan. During the summer, she heads outside to get sun. Last winter, she visited a tanning salon to soak up artificial rays.

The risk of skin cancer doesn't concern her too much: “Yeah, I worry about it, but since I'm already naturally prone to being tan, and I don't get sunburned very easily, it doesn't really cross my mind as such an issue,” said Gerlich, 17, who graduated from Johnson High School in June. “I mean, I know I should think about it more, but I have so many years to think about it whenever I'm older, and I'm only a teenager right now.”

Gerlich turns 18 this week, but younger tanning fans will soon be out of luck. On Sept. 1, a new state law will prohibit minors younger than 18 from indoor tanning in Texas.

Indoor tanning has been linked with skin cancers including melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer. Nearly 30 percent of white high-school girls use tanning beds, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“No tan is worth dying for,” said Allen resident Donna Regen, whose daughter, Jaime Regen Rea, developed melanoma at age 20 after using tanning devices. She died in 2007.

Monica Jones, who owns six locations of Luxe Tanning in San Antonio with her husband, said parents should be allowed to decide whether their teens can tan. She added that the amount of UV radiation clients receive at tanning salons is carefully controlled.

“I challenge you to actually go today and sit in the parking lot of a tanning salon, and I want you to count how many people are coming in and out who are burned or fried,” Jones said. “Now do that at the beach or the pool and see how many people are burned. You be the judge.”

Since 2011, six states, including Texas, have passed laws banning those younger than 18 from indoor tanning. The bans are part of a larger push for regulation of the indoor tanning industry as concern grows over the dangers of ultraviolet radiation.

The Affordable Care Act introduced a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning, a so-called “sin tax,” which went into effect in 2010. In May, the Food and Drug Administration issued a proposal requiring warning labels on UV tanning devices.

Under Texas law, tanning salons can't claim that using UV tanning devices improves the health of customers. In March, the state fined Houston-based Darque Tan more than $140,000 for advertising that indoor tanning beds would increase the body's level of vitamin D, which would reduce the risk of cancer.

Currently, the minimum required age to use a tanning device is 161/2, and youths younger than 18 need parental consent.

But even well-meaning parents might not realize the dangers of indoor tanning, said Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who sponsored the legislative effort.

More Information

“Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation out there,” Huffman said. “I think, in the long run, (the law) will help save lives.”

Jaime Regen Rea forged her mother's name on the consent form to tan. When Donna Regen discovered Jaime was visiting a tanning salon during lunch breaks in high school, she spoke to the staff.

“I was told it was healthy for her, she needs the vitamin D it produces,” said Regen, who testified in support of the new state law. “I bought it hook, line and sinker. Parental consent does not make these tanning beds any less dangerous. You can sign consent forms all day, and your child still is at risk.”

Such tan bans will keep indoor tanning from becoming a habit that continues into adulthood, said Dr. Dirk M. Elston, president of the American Academy of Dermatology Association. Nearly 70 percent of tanning salon customers are Caucasian girls and women, primarily ages 16 to 29 years, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

There remains a staunch opponent to tanning bans: the tanning industry, which emphasizes moderation in tanning.

The American Suntanning Association supports parental-consent legislation but says bans would cause minors to risk sunburn by tanning outside more frequently or using unregulated home devices.

The Indoor Tanning Association has said that moderate, nonburning exposure to UV light from a sunbed or from the sun has health benefits.

But tanning beds can emit UVA radiation as much as 15 times greater than the amount from sunlight, according to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. And UV radiation can damage the skin even without a sunburn developing.

Indoor tanning is a nearly $5 billion per year industry in the United States. Government regulation of the tanning industry, along with the recession, forced the Joneses to close three of their salon locations, Monica Jones said.

Dominique Gonzalez, owner of Glam & Glow Hair & Tanning Salon, said the new law likely won't affect her business.

“In my salon, I have never allowed any minors to tan in a UV bed and (nowadays) most parents don't allow it,” Gonzalez wrote in an email. “In the past year, I have only had two girls under the age of 18 try to tan.”

Anti-tanning advocates are hoping more teens will embrace their natural skin color. Otherwise, they have another alternative to UV tanning devices: spray tanning.